The Tryst

By Michael Dibdin and Dibdin

Book Overview

"One of my patients thinks somebody's trying to kill him," Aileen Macklin says to her husband over breakfast. A psychiatrist with a fading marriage, Aileen is haunted by the glue-sniffing lad who comes to her in a panic, begging to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital for protection. Gary Dunn clearly needs help: ravaged by his squalid existence, he is paralyzed with fear about a murder he has witnessed and convinced he may be next. Unfortunately for Gary, he may just be right. And unfortunately for Aileen, she becomes far more involved in his case than professional ethics would recommend.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375700102
• ISBN13: 9780375700101
• Release Date: July 2003
• Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.1" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Magnificent

This book, quite simply, changed my life. Never before had I been taken so deeply in by a book, to the world I thought I wanted to be a part of. (I'd wanted to be a therapist, not a glue-sniffing street urchin). I've read this short novel over and over again, and it was this novel that made me rush out and explore the rest of Dibdin's works. The guy is a genius.

Makes your hair stand on end

This psychological thriller matches those of Ruth Rendell. It is the story of a psychiatrist and a patient, though the patient is not really mentally ill, he is just seeking the safety of a psychiatric institution. Aileen Macklin has troubles of her own but she has a soft spot for Gary Dunn and she is gradually unravelling what makes the boy tick. Dibdin in the meantime is letting the reader unravel the stories of his characters themselves.

From England and France in 1917 to Hippies in LALAland

I cannot understand how this book rates only one star. I am a total Dibdin fan and I think it is by far his best book. From London punks trying to eat frozen pizza, literally, in a wintry squat to the well-to-do and (in truth) well-intentioned London middle class, and much in between, this is a complex and fascinating work. It contains more truth than thrill, yet frightens all the more so. And, in my opinion, it is all too short, hardly 200 pages.It is hard to imagine anyone not falling into the grip of this realistic yet intensely poetic book. Not quite "horror" (speaking of the genre) yet it is utterly unsettling. It shows WWI with greater strength and insight than Saving Private Ryan (puh...leeze). The scenes from the 60's Brighton "youth culture" would be unfamiliar to any American "ex-hippie", but certainly no less "freaky." And when we are briefly and suddenly transported to college digs near UCLA, even if we are Americans, we can share the culture shock felt by a young English girl. She doesn't stay long. Its hard to pick my favorite moment or moments in this book, but how one young man manages his escape from the closet of a house slated to be torn down bright and early the very next morning....well...that is Dibdin at his very best and shouldn't be missed by any of his fans. Don't let the deceptively slow first 27 pages fool you. The Tryst hits hard but does it's work with a disarming gentleness throughout. I beleive The Tryst to be a work of genius. One star? Outrageous!!! And WHY is it out of print?